Is this Facebook post reasonable or rude and ungrateful?

[Cantheowneroftheredcorsapleasemovetheircar]

Opinions in the comments are split. What's yours?

YABU - rude and ungrateful
YANBU - understandable

I haven't had a collection like that so wouldn't have known it's an evening thing. But someone has collected it to donate it then?

No one can say what the person's intention was, but it could have been someone who really thought they were helping and would be embarrassed/upset seeing such a rude post. The (FB) OP could have kindly put her point across.

Or even better, kindly posted about it the first time it happened so it didn't keep happening. Put a sign up or whatever.

Taken out the good stuff and dumped the rest.

The point they make is valid but it’s poorly worded. They can make the point while also saying how much they appreciate the thought that someone has given to them.
BUT going forward please just send these items as we cannot accept those items for these reasons.

It’s not that difficult to be polite.

also dumping fresh food at doorstep makes it unsafe and unusable even if they had fridges.

Totally reasonable. No one shoulf be "grateful" for someone's unthinking and inappropriate actions that are costing the "recipient" time and money. There is no generosity here, the "donor" is acting selfishly to feel good about themselves without putting any thought into what is needed. The food is going to waste, no one is benefitting from it. They need to stop and they need to be told to stop bluntly.

Personally I think fresh food is better than tinned so there is thought put into it. They've just not realised it would go to waste. I don't see why anyone has to be rude in letting people know something they were unaware of before.

Did they really donate in good faith, though? Any adult knows that perishables should be refrigerated - and certainly not left out overnight; and if it was children, who had somehow got hold of a lot of supermarket sandwiches, their parents would have said that it was a lovely idea, but not something that actually helps them.

Exactly. The first rule of giving something to somebody is to make sure that they will get it, and in an acceptable and manageable state.

Not one person on this thread would leave an envelope of cash on the ground outside the bank overnight and consider that they had actually 'paid it in' - and be surprised when it didn't ever hit their account.

But it's not about whether fresh food is better than tinned at all - would you rather have a tin of beans that had been left outside your door for hours or even days, or a carton of milk?

To be honest, even tins or jars left outside would likely give them pause for thought when they discovered them, as they have no way of knowing of their provenance or how they could have been tampered with/spoiled by the giver, a passer-by with ill intent, an animal or the weather.

Even if you ordered an online food delivery from the supermarket that only included non-perishable, non-ambient items, would you be happy for the delivery person to just leave it unannounced on the street outside your house at some point, rather than knocking during the agreed slot and actually handing it to you?

Fresh food isn’t the issue; no one here is suggesting that stale food is better. The issue is that it’s not fresh after it’s been dumped on a door step goodness knows when and the charity has to pay to get rid of it. You have to have been beamed in from another planet not to be aware that you’re helping no one by shoving leftovers onto a charity’s doorstep.

You've just conjured up those "other mechanisms" in your own mind. Keep it simple and stick with the information that's been provided.

A few small tweaks would make the message appear less rude. Rather than 'dumping' to describe what's been done, use the neutral 'leaving', and don't include 'whoever you are' as that sounds like something a teacher would say to a class of naughty schoolchildren. Instead of that ending, say 'To be clear, we unfortunately can't use donated sandwiches or bread, so please don't leave these on our doorstep'.

If it’s come from Tesco I doubt it very much. It would be more hassle to take it there, waste is given to charities and they pick it up every evening and anything that’s left goes to animal feed and is put in a different colour bag then sent back on the delivery lorry. Dragging it from the store to wherever this charity operates from is definitely the harder way to dispose of it.

I used to work in a charity shop and I lost count of the number of times we had to post reminding people not to dump stuff.

The point is valid. However ,The way it's been put is rude. It could have been written something like "To Whoever is leaving this food I/We can see your intentions are good. However we do not accept these items because ............"

Yep! I know someone who runs a food bank and has people dropping off stale bread and overripe bananas acting like they are Jesus with the loaves and fishes. It is unusable and they have to pay to throw it out

Valid point, clumsily put. So I’d give them the benefit of the doubt.

I had the same instinctive reaction as you; but I've now changed my mind a lot and I don't think they were too brusque at all.

To be frank, I think they were fully justified to find - and express - their anger at this. It's blatantly obvious to everybody that you aren't helping by anonymously dumping fresh food on their doorstep; in fact, they must realise that they're just creating more pointless work for people who are already busy doing very good work for no financial reward.

Nobody could genuinely think that they would (eventually) find the fresh food and think, with a big happy grin, "Ooh, we've no idea who left that there, or when, and how long it's been out of the fridge, and if there's anything wrong with it or it's been tampered with, weather-damaged or soiled by an animal... BUT nevertheless, that's exactly the kind of donation that we can use!!!"

Our local charity shop leave a huge sign outside their front door when the shop is closed telling people unequivocally NOT to leave donations on their step when they're closed. There is always stuff that's been fly-tipped right in front of the sign, every single time I pass by. People know very well that they are actively causing problems - but they exploit the fact that they can both make their rubbish somebody else's problem AND reframe the facts on SM to boast about how generous they are when it comes to 'giving' to good causes in the community.

It's an aggressive act, albeit dressed up as a caring one - why would they feel the need to tread carefully and make sure they don't risk upsetting somebody who is deliberately sabotaging their good work?

Those are very valid points, but you have to consider they are posting publicly - so the post won't only be seen by the culprits (the culprits might not see it at all) but by other supporters and potential supporters, who might be put off by the brusqueness of the post.

Really? Supporters who genuinely want to help will be put off doing so by an organisation having to actually tell people not to fly-tip rubbish on their doorstep?!

I think that most actual supporters would quickly realise how frustrating it must be for them having this done repeatedly. The only people who would get in a rage would be the ones who like to rage-surf - like the people Terry Wogan used to cite as sitting in front of their TVs and radios just waiting to be offended - and criticise people for anything they can, but who would never actually be minded to do anything helpful or meaningful themselves.

It’s unnecessarily harsh and will make somebody feel persecuted for what they thought was a decent gesture.

why are they throwing the bread out, surely someone will eat them? Spoken as an avid fan of reduced yellow sticker sandwiches

Dumping old food outside is not a decent gesture.

If you want to eat bread out of bin bags left in the street, head over there.

It’s unnecessarily harsh and will make somebody feel persecuted for what they thought was a decent gesture

I would think that the charity think exactly that about someone dumping stuff they have to pay to remove. An unnecessary act that penalises people trying to do a nice thing.

It's not rude, it's just to the point and totally fair enough.

It's the same as dumping old unsellable shit outside a charity shop because you are too lazy to dispose of it properly.

Would you eat a reduced sandwich that you found in the street? Because this is the same thing.